by
Al Fondy1
Hugh Trevor-Roper used a 1930s analogy to explain the rise of Nazi power in Germany. A factory owner was tormented by pesky labor organizers so he brought in Mafia gangsters to drive the union men away. He thought that once his labor force was docile then his problems would be over. But as it turned out, he could not control the gangsters, soon the leader was in the owner's office with his feet on the desk and smoking the owner's fine cigars. At that point the owner realized his error only too late.
The analogy fits Pedro Garcia and his accomplices only imperfectly. First, he shows no evidence of violence in Nashville. Second, Cuban Fascism seems like a pale imitation of industrial fascism. In the pre-Castro days the sugar "industry" and the tourist "industry" were the major engines of economic life there. But it was in that totalitarian society that Garcia picked up a world view which still dominates his organizational structures even today.
Nashvillians, with a racist heritage still visible, were at first bemused by what sounded like a Ricky Riccardo accent. The stories of old Cuba seemed harmless enough and Garcia was careful rarely to mention "The Dictator." Nashvillians all seemed to think of Cuban tyranny in terms of Fidel Castro. They were unaware of a previous dictator who was much worse: Fulgencio Batista, Garcia's role model. It was indiscrete for Garcia to tell often of his arson of farmers' fields in Cuba. He did not realize that even in the big city, many people still have an agricultural heritage, and they knew how he was glorifying criminal acts. In the honeymoon phase of his administration, however, he seemed unable to do wrong.
Other pages on this site detail Garcia's success in squelching the teachers' union, the African-American voices, the Metropolitan Council members, and other groups who believed in progressive education. Suffice it to say here, he was successful.
But as other critical voices began to disappear, Garcia started conflicts with the school board members themselves. According to stories in the Nashville Scene2, he berated the members and loudly proclaimed that their expectations were impossible. Apparently, more than once he was told that a majority was ready to dismiss him unless he humbly approached the board and promised to work together again. Witnesses say that Garcia himself browbeat the board members into taking the famous vote which was then characterized as a "no-confidence" vote of 5-4. Had Garcia been less confrontational he could have left the system on his own terms.
Board members, except for the most extreme partisans, now see the mistreatment that Garcia has forced upon others for the past five years. They gingerly pointed out every year that treatment of the school staff was a major problem. Now they see that, not only did it not improve, but board members themselves are subject to abuse3. Any school board who elects to make Pedro Garcia their CEO in the future, should view the stories here as a cautionary tale.
1nom de plume
2The Nashville Scene December 15, 2005.
3The Nashville Scene October 13, 2005.